Is anyone else dreading the clocks going back?

[CinnamonCrunch33]

It's finally here. Dark evenings, and within a week or two, dark mornings too. I'll be leaving for work and heading home in the dark. Thankfully my job has some big windows and I have access to outside space if needs be, but it'll still be a pretty miserable six months. I'm trying to get ahead of it by getting my supplements sorted out and bought, but even then I don't know how well it'll work. Just the worst time of year all around

No, I'm desperate for lighter mornings as struggling to get up at the moment.

For about a week

Completely agree with you. The shortest day is in December and then they start to draw out again.

Yes exactly.

And for those that say they start drawing out again in December - not really noticeably do they? It carries on getting darker in the morning until Jan (I know as I’ve tracked this)!

And it doesn’t get light again at 5 until mid February. So that’s the time I begin to feel slightly better. Not bloody December or January when it’s still really dark in the mornings and the evenings.

I was a student nurse, working nights, when the clocks went back one year - all of us who worked that night had to work an extra hour - for no extra pay (because they didn’t dock an hour off the night staff who worked when the clocks went forward). It was deeply depressing to get to 2am, and put the clocks back to 1am, and know that I still had 7 more hours to work.

I so agree with this

I'm a Southern Hemisphere dweller and we change our clocks - we recently put them forward an hour (hooray!!!).

I don't like the thought of winter, but by the time the clocks go back it's past the time for wanting to spend evenings outside so I don't really care. Thankfully it doesn't get dark until around 5.30 pm in winter here, I don't think I could stand it being dark earlier than that.

I think some people lie to themselves to make themselves feel better

Depressing that it’ll be dark when I get up and go home til March. 😢

I don't dread it, but I think it is the third choice option behind year round BST or year round GMT.

Either of those two options means that winter is more gradual in its arrival, and would save lives. Road crashes would not rise in November for starters.

that is not true. you start to get a little bit more sun the day after the shortes day of the year its how nature works. Once people are back after Xmas holidays for work and school you start to see a difference. it's physically impossible for it to still be getting darker in the mornings in Jan.

The shortest day is 21 Dec, but the darkest morning is around 5 Jan (and likewise the earliest sunset is in mid-Dec), which I think is what the pp was talking about. The drawing in/out of the mornings and evenings follow different curves (IYSWIM).

Well maybe you could try that instead of moaning?

I'm guessing all the people who Witter on about cosy blankets and hot chocolate aren't dealing with SEN children who can't get out to burn off energy after school. When you're trapped indoors by dark and rain it seriously hard work and not a bit relaxing or fun. You're too busy refereeing arguments and dealing with meltdowns for Netflix, you never get to watch it uninterrupted. My mood starts to tail off at the end of August when the light quality changes and I'm really dreading this winter, it already feels like it's been autumn for ever. Hate Halloween and never bother with it and would happily forego Christmas for year round sunlight and warmth.

No, I love it. Hate the bloody blazing sunshine.

Ooh where are you?

I honestly thought it was only a Northern Hemisphere thing.

We don't change clocks in SA.

I'm in NZ, we've been changing the clocks for years.

I can deal with it. I look forward to 21st December and look for the first signs we are heading out of it. I find it more difficult to deal with the hot chocolate, snuggly blanket, cosy evening, bought-loads-of-shit-from-Dunelm crowd.

I don't really understand the people saying that we need GMT all year round. The hours of daylight will still reduce from around 17 to just 7, it's not caused by the clock change, its caused by our position in relation to the sun. The clock change just tries to maximise the daylight.

We don't need GMT year round. It would just be my preference because the changing is annoying and pointless and we don't need it to be might at 10pm in June. Just sticking to one time would be simpler and we wouldn't really lose anything.

Exact dates vary according to where you live.

Up north, the curves are more extreme so we get shorter days in winter, but longer days in summer.

Normally a couple of days after New Year here when mornings start creeping lighter, but evenings start getting lighter earlier.

Personally I feel better as soon as we are in the getting-lighter phase, even when we are still weeks away from properly light mornings and evenings.

I don't mind it now but when DS was younger, he'd spend at least two weeks post clock change getting up at what used to be 5.30am only it was 4.30am.... you get the picture.

Thanks. I don’t think people realise this. It’s still really dark in the morning in Jan (darker than Dec). And gets dark 4ish. You get a minute extra of light in the evening every day. Whoopy do! Doesn’t feel like the days are getting brighter to me until Feb. Because an extra minute at 4.07pm doesn’t really cut it…

It’s not physically impossible for the mornings to still be getting darker in Jan. They are - January 6th is the latest sunrise of the year. That’s nature..

Definitely! But on these threads there are always loads of posters who seem to be under the impression that shorter days are the result of moving back to GMT

Whereas without the clocks going back, in many parts of the country it would still be fully dark at 9am and beyond for a good chunk of the winter, which would be grim.